Missed this thread the first time round but the references to Cwm Rhondda sucked me in. It's a great tune but I fear ruined for me since I took my mother (well in her eighties) to hear Aled Jones when he was on tour in Melbourne in December. He was a gifted boy soprano but his voice did not break well. He did a version of Cwm Rhondda but basically let the choir backing him carry the music & his attempt at "Oh Holy Night" was pitiful - he didn't even try for the top note at the end.

However, to be positive, as a lapsed old school Methodist, Charles Wesley certainly put the emotion into his brothers crusading (might I say like George Beverley Shea used to with Billy Graham). And John W. Peterson (who I think wrote Softly & Tenderley which was one of the earliest entries) to me has written some of the better modern hymns & cantatas.

But, as a final comment on the faith I was raised in:
Do you know why Methodists disapprove of sex before marriage
They fear it might lead to dancing!!!